Im Bann des Voodoos

NETHERWORLD (1992)

BASIC PLOT: A man, Corey Thornton (Michael Bendetti), returns home to Louisiana, after his father, Noah (Robert Sampson), dies, to claim his estate. It's an old world plantation, with many strange happenings, and people. Corey, who never knew his father, becomes preoccupied with him, by reading his father's diaries. He begins dreaming of his father's mistress, Delores (Denise Gentile). He is warned by Diane Palmer (Holly Floria), the daughter of the woman who runs the plantation, against going to the backwoods brothel where Delores works. But his dreams keep intensifying, and the pull is strong. There are many powerful Voodoo Queens about, but which one can he trust? Is there a way to discover his father's true intentions, before his passions consume him?

WHAT WORKS: *This is an atmospheric, plain and simple. The only problem here, is they forgot to layout the plot and characters, so what you are left with, falls short. It does have beautiful locations, and beautiful people.

*Louisiana Voodoo is it's own religion, separate from Haitian Voodoo, Cuban Sanitaria, or Hoodoo. It is heavily dominated by women, Voodoo priestesses, which this movie accurately portrays. The women have the real power in the movie, and in the spiritual arts of Louisiana.

*Imprisoning souls in birds, is a cool take on an old Haitian Voodoo practice, but doesn't have much to do with reality. I can forgive this, it is fiction after all, but one cool plot device, can't carry the whole movie.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *There's no plot, not really. I'm a huge fan of Full Moon Productions, and this is not terrible, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

*There's no character development AT ALL! Not one character had a backstory, it's all surface. He's an accountant, a henchman, a prostitute, does that tell you anything? NO!

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *If you are a fan of Full Moon movies, you might want to see this. If you like movies that contain Voodoo, or Louisiana locations, you might like this. Otherwise, I'd probably give this a pass. It had real potential, they just never utilized any of it.

CLOSING NOTES: *I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews. Hope I helped you out.

I actually thought I was in for something interesting during the first few minutes of this film, the section I'll call "the prologue". It was atmospheric and strange enough to hold some promise. Unfortunately, I kept waiting for something to happen for the rest of the movie, and very little does, except for the last 10 minutes when I finally learned what the title really means, and that I had been had, big time. This isn't scary, suspenseful or even erotic as the trailer suggested, the only positive thing I can say about it is that it's well photographed. I certainly expected more from the director of Tourist Trap and the original Puppet Master. Netherworld is an infuriating disappointment.

Other reviewers were right on the mark - it had promise and atmosphere, but really went nowhere. I recall one genre reviewer dismissing one Full Moon release as "another talkfest" and I have to agree - their scripts and sometimes the direction just weren't well paced and seem padded out. However, you have to at least watch the end credits for an in-joke that you'll get if you didn't fall asleep. It was the best laugh I had that day.

Poor movie, some nasty special effects and several beautiful girls are the ingredients of a horror movie that makes you smile, unintentionally, at how bad it was done.

This movie seems to be a surprisingly gentle film for its genre.I think the sound track lures you into this feeling.With the music luring you into such a tranquil feeling. There are a few surprises in the form of rushes that will catch you totally off guard.I found that my main interest focused on the sound track.Some very " comforting" sounds.On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give the movie an over all rating of 7 1/2 to 8.I would also like to locate a copy of the sound track for home use.